The Wonderful Visit by H. G. Wells (Illustrated)

By H.G. Wells

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Wonderful Visit’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of H. G. Wells’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wells includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Wonderful Visit’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wells’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786565594

H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English novelist who helped to define modern science fiction. Wells came from humble beginnings with a working-class family. As a teen, he was a draper’s assistant before earning a scholarship to the Normal School of Science. It was there that he expanded his horizons learning different subjects like physics and biology. Wells spent his free time writing stories, which eventually led to his groundbreaking debut, The Time Machine. It was quickly followed by other successful works like The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds.

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The Complete Works of

H. G. WELLS

VOLUME 2 OF 99

The Wonderful Visit

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2015

Version 7

COPYRIGHT

‘The Wonderful Visit’

H. G. Wells: Parts Edition (in 99 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 559 4

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

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www.delphiclassics.com

H. G. Wells: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 2 of the Delphi Classics edition of H. G. Wells in 99 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Wonderful Visit from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of H. G. Wells, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of H. G. Wells or the Complete Works of H. G. Wells in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

H. G. WELLS

IN 99 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, The Time Machine

2, The Wonderful Visit

3, The Island of Doctor Moreau

4, The Wheels of Chance

5, The Invisible Man

6, The War of the Worlds

7, When the Sleeper Wakes

8, Love and Mr. Lewisham

9, The First Men in the Moon

10, The Sea Lady

11, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

12, Kipps

13, A Modern Utopia

14, In the Days of the Comet

15, The War in the Air

16, Tono-Bungay

17, Ann Veronica

18, The History of Mr. Polly

19, The Sleeper Awakes

20, The New Machiavelli

21, Marriage

22, The Passionate Friends

23, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman

24, The World Set Free

25, Bealby: A Holiday

26, Boon

27, The Research Magnificent

28, Mr. Britling Sees It Through

29, The Soul of a Bishop

30, Joan and Peter: the Story of an Education

31, The Undying Fire

32, The Secret Places of the Heart

33, Men Like Gods

34, The Dream

35, Christina Alberta’s Father

36, The World of William Clissold

37, Meanwhile

38, Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island

39, The Autocracy of Mr. Parham

40, The Bulpington of Blup

41, The Shape of Things to Come

42, The Croquet Player

43, Brynhild

44, Star Begotten

45, The Camford Visitation

46, Apropos of Dolores

47, The Brothers

48, The Holy Terror

49, Babes in the Darkling Wood

50, All Aboard for Ararat

51, You Can’t Be Too Careful

The Short Story Collections

52, The Early Short Stories

53, Select Conversations with an Uncle

54, The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

55, The Plattner Story and Others

56, Tales of Space and Time

57, Twelve Stories and a Dream

58, The Country of the Blind and Other Stories

59, The Door in the Wall and Other Stories

60, Uncollected Short Stories

Selected Non-Fiction

61, Text-Book of Biology

62, Certain Personal Matters

63, Anticipations of the Reactions of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought

64, The Discovery of the Future

65, Preface to ‘Underground Man by Gabriel Tarde’

66, Mankind in the Making

67, The Future in America

68, This Misery of Boots

69, New Worlds for Old

70, First and Last Things

71, Floor Games

72, Little Wars

73, The War that Will End War

74, An Englishman Looks at the World

75, What Is Coming?

76, The Elements of Reconstruction

77, Introduction to ‘Nocturne by Frank Swinnerton’

78, Introduction to ‘The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger’

79, God the Invisible King

80, War and the Future

81, In the Fourth Year

82, The Idea of a League of Nations

83, The Outline of History

84, Russia in the Shadows

85, The Salvaging of Civilization

86, A Short History of the World

87, Washington and the Hope of Peace

88, The Story of a Great Schoolmaster

89, A Year of Prophesying

90, Mr. Belloc Objects to The Outline of History

91, The Open Conspiracy

92, World Brain

93, The Fate of Homo Sapiens

94, The New World Order

95, The Common Sense of War and Peace

96, Crux Ansata

97, Marxism Vs. Liberalism

The Criticism

98, The Criticism

The Autobiography

99, Experiment in Autobiography

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The Wonderful Visit

Published in 1895, Wells’ second novel is a fantasy story with an undercurrent of social criticism. The author took his inspiration for The Wonderful Visit from a remark by noted art critic and social commentator John Ruskin, who had famously posited that if an angel were to appear in contemporary England it would be shot on sight. In Wells’ novel, an angel does indeed appear and his ignorance of Victorian social mores leads to him being denounced as a socialist — and to criticism of the well-intentioned clergyman that takes the being into his home.

Interestingly, the novel treats the angel as a visitor from an ambiguously-described ‘Land of Dreams’, rather than any theologically-recognisable Heaven. This is in keeping with Wells’ own religious views – although nominally Christian, he openly acknowledged his very broad interpretation of Christian doctrine and professed instead a deeply personal interpretation of God, which he attempted to reconcile with his own scientific and moral values.

1895 was a watershed year for Wells. After a stint as a teacher, he had taken up writing professionally and was turning out around 7,000 words a day – as well as this novel and The Time Machine, 1895 also saw publication of Select Conversations with an Uncle and The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents. It also saw Wells’ marriage to his second wife, a former student named Amy Catherine Robbins, after his first marriage to his cousin had ended by mutual consent in 1894.

The first edition

CONTENTS

The Night of the Strange Bird. I.

The Coming of the Strange Bird. II.

The Hunting of the Strange Bird. III.

IV.

V.

The Vicar and the Angel. VI.

VII.

VIII.

Parenthesis on Angels. IX.

At the Vicarage. X.

XI.

XII.

The Man of Science. XIII.

XIV.

The Curate. XV.

XVI.

XVII.

After Dinner. XVIII.

XIX.

XX.

XXI.

Morning. XXII.

The Violin. XXIII.

The Angel Explores the Village. XXIV.

XXV.

XXVI.

XXVII.

Lady Hammergallow’s View. XXVIII.

Further Adventures of the Angel in the Village. XXIX.

XXX.

Mrs Jehoram’s Breadth of View. XXXI.

A Trivial Incident. XXXII.

The Warp and the Woof of Things. XXXIII.

The Angel’s Debut. XXXIV.

XXXV.

XXXVI.

XXXVII.

The Trouble of the Barbed Wire. XXXVIII.

XXXIX.

Delia. XL.

Doctor Crump Acts. XLI.

Sir John Gotch Acts. XLII.

The Sea Cliff. XLIII.

Mrs Hinijer Acts. XLIV.

The Angel in Trouble. XLV.

XLVI.

The Last Day of the Visit. XLVII.

XLVIII.

XLIX.

L.

LI.

LII.

The Epilogue.

H. G. Wells with his second wife, Amy Catherine Robbins (later known as Jane) in 1895

The Night of the Strange Bird. I.

On the Night of the Strange Bird, many people at Sidderton (and some nearer) saw a Glare on the Sidderford moor. But no one in Sidderford saw it, for most of Sidderford was abed.

All day the wind had been rising, so that the larks on the moor chirruped fitfully near the ground, or rose only to be driven like leaves before the wind. The sun set in a bloody welter of clouds, and the moon was hidden. The glare, they say, was golden like a beam shining out of the sky, not a uniform blaze, but broken all over by curving flashes like the waving of swords. It lasted but a moment and left the night dark and obscure. There were letters about it in Nature, and a rough drawing that no one thought very like. (You may see it for yourself — the drawing that was unlike the glare — on page 42 of Vol. cclx. of that publication.)

None in Sidderford saw the light, but Annie, Hooker Durgan’s wife, was lying awake, and she saw the reflection of it — a flickering tongue of gold — dancing on the wall.

She, too, was one of those who heard the sound. The others who heard the sound were Lumpy Durgan, the half-wit, and Amory’s mother. They said it was a sound like children singing and a throbbing of harp strings, carried on a rush of notes like that which sometimes comes from an organ. It began and ended like the opening and shutting of a door, and before and after they heard nothing but the night wind howling over the moor and the noise of the caves under Sidderford cliff. Amory’s mother said she wanted to cry when she heard it, but Lumpy was only sorry he could hear no more.

That is as much as anyone can tell you of the glare upon Sidderford Moor and the alleged music therewith. And whether these had any real connexion with the Strange Bird whose history follows, is more than I can say. But I set it down here for reasons that will be more apparent as the story proceeds.

The Coming of the Strange Bird. II.

Sandy Bright was coming down the road from Spinner’s carrying a side of bacon he had taken in exchange for a clock. He saw nothing of the light but he heard and saw the Strange Bird. He suddenly heard a flapping and a voice like a woman wailing, and being a nervous man and all alone, he was alarmed forthwith, and turning (all a-tremble) saw something large and black against the dim darkness of the cedars up the hill. It seemed to be coming right down upon him, and incontinently he dropped his bacon and set off running, only to fall headlong.

He tried in vain — such was his state of mind — to remember the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. The strange bird flapped over him, something larger than himself, with a vast spread of wings, and, as he thought, black. He screamed and gave himself up for lost. Then it went past him, sailing down the hill, and, soaring over the vicarage, vanished into the hazy valley towards Sidderford.

And Sandy Bright lay upon his stomach there, for ever so long, staring into the darkness after the strange bird. At last he got upon his knees and began to thank Heaven for his merciful deliverance, with his eyes downhill. He went on down into the village, talking aloud and confessing his sins as he went, lest the strange bird should come back. All who heard him thought him drunk. But from that night he was a changed man, and had done with drunkenness and defrauding the revenue by selling silver ornaments without a licence. And the side of bacon lay upon the hillside until the tallyman from Portburdock found it in the morning.

The next who saw the Strange Bird was a solicitor’s clerk at Iping Hanger, who was climbing the hill before breakfast, to see the sunrise. Save for a few dissolving wisps of cloud the sky had been blown clear in the night. At first he thought it was an eagle he saw. It was near the zenith, and incredibly remote, a mere bright speck above the pink cirri, and it seemed as if it fluttered and beat itself against the sky, as an imprisoned swallow might do against a window pane. Then down it came into the shadow of the earth, sweeping in a great curve towards Portburdock and round over